Upgrade from Premium to Ultimate

[Adds]

Hello,

I bought a new Dell last week. As it comes with Media Center, I've got a
free upgrade to Vista Premium.

However, I run a domain server at home, and can join the domain on Media
Center 2005 as long as I select it at install time. A slight pain, but
something I can live with as I'm not going to be renaming my domain in a
hurry.

I'm assuming that Vista Premium has no domain support at all... Even at
install time. So it looks like, in order to run the Vista version of Media
Center, *and* be able to connect to a domain server, I'll need Vista
Ultimate (please correct me if this is incorrect).

So, will I be able to buy a Premium to Ultimate upgrade, or will I only be
able to buy a "XP Pro" to Ultimate upgrade (which, presumably would cost
more).

Thanks,
A.

 

[Kevin John Panzke]

Hello,

I bought a new Dell last week. As it comes with Media Center, I've got a
free upgrade to Vista Premium.

However, I run a domain server at home, and can join the domain on Media
Center 2005 as long as I select it at install time. A slight pain, but
something I can live with as I'm not going to be renaming my domain in a
hurry.

I'm assuming that Vista Premium has no domain support at all... Even at
install time. So it looks like, in order to run the Vista version of Media
Center, *and* be able to connect to a domain server, I'll need Vista
Ultimate (please correct me if this is incorrect).

So, will I be able to buy a Premium to Ultimate upgrade, or will I only be
able to buy a "XP Pro" to Ultimate upgrade (which, presumably would cost
more).

Thanks,
A.

Try using the Windows Vista Anytime Upgrade Feature (a Built in Program
in Windows Vista RTM), after you receive your copy of Windows Vista Home
Premium Edition RTM and have it installed on your computer, Just FYI.

 

[Adds]

Try using the Windows Vista Anytime Upgrade Feature (a Built in Program in

Windows Vista RTM), after you receive your copy of Windows Vista Home
Premium Edition RTM and have it installed on your computer, Just FYI.

Excellent. Thanks very much. I hadn't heard about Anytime Upgrade, but a
quick Google as told me all I wanted to know (except the cost obviously!
.

Thanks,
A.

 

[Tom Porterfield]

Excellent. Thanks very much. I hadn't heard about Anytime Upgrade, but a
quick Google as told me all I wanted to know (except the cost obviously!
.

MS is stating the suggested retail cost of the Ultimate upgrade to be $259.
You may be able to shop around for some slight discounts off of that, but I
wouldn't expect to find anything too far from that from a legitimate source.

 

[John Barnes]

That would be the upgrade from XP to Vista, not the anytime upgrade from one
version of Vista to another. Haven't seen any prices for that yet.

 

[Andre Da Costa [Extended64]]

I notice some are doing it for free, while others are charging 45 to 70
dollars for the upgrade.

 

[Tom Porterfield]

I notice some are doing it for free, while others are charging 45 to 70
dollars for the upgrade.

Are you talking about Windows Anytime Upgrade? Or are you talking about the
ugprade to Vista coupons that a number of PC manufacturers are offering if
you purchase a Vista capable PC today that is running Windows XP? It sounds
like you are talking about the latter while this discussion is about the
former.

 

[Andre Da Costa [Extended64]]

Applies to both, especially if it is purchased from an OEM. The technology
upgrade option last from October 26 2006 to March 15 2007. But anytime
upgrade is forever.

 

[Tom Porterfield]

Applies to both, especially if it is purchased from an OEM. The technology
upgrade option last from October 26 2006 to March 15 2007. But anytime
upgrade is forever.

So the some OEM's are offering an upgrade from Vista Home Premium to Vista
Ultimate for free? Interesting... Do you have any references so I can
cite that info? Thanks.

 

[Barry Watzman]

You will be able to use the "anytime" upgrade to upgrade from Vista Home
Premium to Vista Ultimate. The prices have not been announced, but for
this upgrade it's likely to be in the range of $100 based on the pricing
that is known.

HOWEVER, it's not a give that you can use both Media Center and domain
networking anyway. In XP media center, domain networking wasn't taken
out just to de-feature the product. There is a true conflict between
some media functions (in particular the use of "media extenders") and
domain networking. This conflict was unresolvable in XP, and it's the
reason that there is very limited domain networking in XP MCE. You may
know that in XP MCE, there are patches {hacks, really) to restore domain
networking ... but they do so at the expense of the ability to use media
extenders. In Vista ultimate, it's not clear what MS has done, but you
can't automatically assume that you will have both full media center
capabilities and domain networking. Perhaps, but perhaps not.